So
should we be concerned with teenage athletes turning to various supplements to
boost their protein and nutritional intake to support weight gain? As is the
case with all areas of nutritional science, there are two sides to the story.
Of course parents should be concerned or at least aware of what their teenage athletes
are consuming but the first thing to know is that we cannot group all
supplements into the same category. There is a wide range of nutritional and performance
supplements available, which all do very different things. Sure, some may
warrant concern with various suspicious ingredients and stimulants, but many,
as is the case with most ‘protein’ supplements are simply a mix of concentrated
milk protein and some carbohydrates for energy.
Now
while the most common question that comes from parents is, ‘can’t they just get
their nutrition from their food and drink some extra milk?’ is warranted, here
are some of the number to consider. A busy teenage athlete, competing in 2-3
different sports at a relatively high level will be burning and as a result require
several thousand calories a day – and this is just to grow and develop normally.
If the athlete then has considerably athletic ability identified and his sport
will benefit from him gaining 5-10 extra kg, unless he is drinking a litre of
milk in a sitting to get the equivalent 30-40g of protein he can get from a
protein shake or eating large serves of lean meat or eggs at every meal and
mid-meal, it is going to prove challenging for him to get the amounts of
carbohydrates, calories and protein he will require for muscle growth and
recovery on a daily basis. This is not to say that it cannot be done, just that
it will require a lot of attention and eating – something which teenage boys
are not necessarily good at, or have time for.
So
for this reason, as long as the supplement schoolboy athletes are choosing is
pure – that means contains just carbohydrates and proteins without growth
additives such as creatine, which we do not know are safe for teenagers at this
stage, and comes from a reputable Australian brand such as BSc, I do use protein
supplements with school boy athletes. Naturally we stress that more is not
better, and supplements will only work in conjunction with a strong baseline
diet, but they are an option. And surely as parents it is better to know what
they are having, where it comes from and make sure they are taking it the right
way, as opposed to them purchasing a dodgy supplement from overseas and taking
it on the sly, because this is what tends to happen deep in private school
dorms late at night anyway.
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